The King and his Shadow
The room had been splendid... in the past.
The furniture was now broken, buried under the rubble, the overturned columns lay on the ground, the roof had partly collapsed.
At times violent tremors shook the walls as stones and dust fell from the ceiling. Suddenly a huge beam detached before breaking into a thousand pieces by hitting a sphere-shaped energy shield.
The shock did not startle the slender teenage girl with caramel-colored eyes and hair standing inside this shield. The young Japanese girl was focused on the multiple virtual screens that opened and closed all around her. Some of these flat holograms were covered with texts of strange writing that unfolded too quickly for an ordinary human to read. Others showed patterns, or human figures surrounded by symbols and percentages. Parts of these silhouettes were flashing red... signaling injuries. Other screens were covered with pie charts or bar graphs.
Next to the Last Master of the Moon stood a teenager dressed in a green hibakama, a white chihaya, and zori sandals. The beautiful Hime-Miko watched the screen dance with a mixture of amazement and respect. Although boosted by one of the Authorities of her "husband" and therefore provisionally endowed with superhuman reflexes, she did not have time to understand what was written on one screen before another one replaced it.
It seemed unlikely that Hakuno Kishinami could decipher the content of all these graphics or read all these texts simultaneously, except that...
With a gesture of the hand, the Sovereign of the Moon moved a screen while with the other hand, she immobilized a diagram before enlarging it.
... except that Hakuno was like a conductor in charge of a philharmonic orchestra. The teenage girl with caramel hair did more than understand the dance of virtual windows. She was the one who manipulated them! Yuri Mariya shook her head and focused on the only screen that remained motionless, the largest of them.
It was a scene filmed by the incomprehensible Alien Computer known as Moon Cell... a scene of confrontation with violence that surpasses imagination. Although the conflict took place several hundred meters away, each clash between the opponents shook the whole city, cracked the walls, and broke the stone bricks.
[Now] said Hakuno telepathically.
Erica Blandelli leaps forward. In her hand, Cuore di Leone shone with a red light. The Copper-Black Cross Knight struck with superhuman force and her sword clashed with the enemy's weapon.
The huge throne room vibrated as a shockwave passed through it like a storm wind. The ground split under the feet of the fighters. Pieces of rock... or more exactly divine power materialized under the appearance of stone... were projected in all directions like a bullet hail of rubble while a deep and wide crater was carved into the ground.
Cuore di Leone was a powerful magic sword, one of the treasures of the Italian chivalrous orders... but the sword wielded by the Strongest Steel was a Divine Authority... in fact, the most powerful Authority known.
The sword of the blonde Italian shattered like it was made of glass, disintegrating in her hand.
"Poor fool" roared Rama. "You face the King of the End! No mortal can prevail against the most powerful of gods!"
Erica jumped back and smiled.
"Oh? You know what a diversion is?"
She clapped her hands and the fragments of Cuore di Leone began to radiate, amalgamating and growing like wild vines... imprisoning Rama in a narrow cage of tangled metal tendrils.
The Last Master of the Moon was an impressive strategist.
Liliana Kranjčar had waited for Hakuno's starting signal to sing the Spell Words of Smiting. And, at the very moment when the Croat finished forging the arrow invested with the Sacred Privilege of Extermination and had placed it on the rope of the Bow of David, Erica leaped back after chaining the King of the End.
Rama might have been much more cautious if he had fought a god or a Campione. But the plan exploited the Strongest Steel's contempt for humans, his certainty of having nothing to fear from such shabby creatures.
Hakuno's plan and perfect timing effectively offered Rama on a silver platter to the Silver Fairy Knight.
Unfortunately, the Strongest Steel wasn't bragging when he said he was the most powerful of the gods.
Although immobilized by the steel ties created by Erica, he brandishes his sword.
"Divine Lightning of Salvation!"
While a wave of fire was spreading around him disintegrating his cage (simple side effect of this Divine Authority) a ray of dazzling platinum light came out of the tip of the Divine Sword of Salvation... This beam of destruction targeted Emiya Shirou!
Why the Heretic God had concentrated all his power of destruction on this ordinary human while a Campione and a goddess participated in the fight? Rama himself could not have answered this very question. But he was a God of Steel... and his divine wisdom as his warrior instinct told him that the archer in red was the most dangerous enemy present.
Although exhausted by this long fight and wounded several times, Lancelot du Lac remained the fastest fighter in their group. Seeing Rama attack, she ran to interpose... determined to sacrifice rather than allow the victory of the King of the End.
Oh, she liked Emiya Shirou, but it wasn't for him that she was willing to die.
By an unfortunate coincidence, Guinevere was just behind the Faker and she was threatened by Rama's attack. The Witch Queen was like a little sister to her.
The Queen of the Amazons lifted her shield and clenched her teeth... it was not going to be pleasant!
Emiya Shirou had several Noble Phantasms in Unlimited Bladework that could counter the Divine Sword of Salvation. Thanks to Titania, he even had a physical copy of Avalon... but he could only use them if he had them in his hands.
The attack had been so sudden that he had just enough time to understand what was going on... but not enough for thoughtful action. As a reflex, he grabbed Guinevere, shielded her with his body, and closed his eyes. Self-sacrifice, a reaction so Shirou-like, right?
To his surprise, he felt only a violent displacement of air slamming his clothes against his body. He turned and discovered Lancelot's presence a few steps away.
The goddess was now dressed only in charred and smoking rags. Her hair and face were deeply burned. She stopped the attack, but at a price! The ground in front of the paragon of chivalry was hollowed out of a deep splash-shaped crater at the end of a trench of melted stone.
"Lancelot!"
Tearing herself away from Emiya's arms, Guinevere ran to her friend and held her as she fell to her knees.
"Sorry, Sir Shirou, I'm afraid I won't be able to fight anymore..."
"You've done enough, Sir Lancelot," Emiya said in a deep voice. He briefly closed his eyes and then... "Trace On!"
In his hand appeared a superb sword of black metal, the handle was inlaid with gold and the pommel was a milky stone.
The Faker ran towards Rama and the two swords collided with incredible force. The ground exploded beneath them. Excalibur and Durandal were in crossada. At the point of contact between the two blades, sparks showers fell to the ground.
The Strongest Steel frowned. He disengaged his blade and struck again but with even more force. There was an explosion as a hurricane rose in the throne room, slapping the walls.
But Shirou had blocked the attack. The ground split under his feet and his legs folded. With his teeth clenched, the Red Archer made the sword of his enemy slide outward with a twist of the wrist. Immediately, he in turn attacked and the two swords collided again
The two fighters multiplied the chain attacks, their swords colliding as quickly as a machine gun spit its bullets. They seemed to have ten arms, and the blades were blurred shapes drawing complex figures in the air. They disappeared... and reappeared as ghostly silhouettes in ten places in the room. While prana explosions and electric arcs were born each time their weapons collided.
Rama fell back to the ground, his blade raised in a defensive stance.
"Impossible! This sword is not a Divine Authority! How can it resist the Divine Sword of Salvation?" Shirou smiled mockingly.
"You underestimate mortals... This is Durandal, the sword of Roland, the First Paladin of Charlemagne. After falling into an ambush at Ronceveau, the paladin wanted to smash his sword so that it didn't fall into the hands of the enemy... and the sword slit through the mountains, creating a new passage across the Pyrenees and linking Spain to France."
"... it's just a legend. Such a sword never existed."
The Faker nodded.
"You are right, King of the End. Durandal is indeed a Noble Phantasm, the incarnation of a legend. Mighty Rama, you don't face a simple sword... you face the faith that humanity has for one of its Heroes. Armed with such faith, Heroes can kill even the gods..." Emiya's mocking smile was accentuated. "Don't move, I'll prove it to you just now!"
Rama's face contracted. But its fury lasted only a brief moment. The God of Steel looked around and... Suddenly, he smiles at the magus with condescension.
"Don't be so cocky. I saw that you had a way to protect yourself from any attack... you even drive into blasphemy to the point of thwarting a Divine Authority. But you can only protect yourself and those are right next to you. Am I mistaken?"
Shirou frowned. Rama was to talk about Avalon and what he was saying was true. The scabbard of Saber's Excalibur created an ephemeral fortress, impregnable to all forms of magic... even the Divine Authorities (even though other forms of protection from magic were ineffective). But it was an immovable and personal fortress... by no means a group protection.
The answer to Rama's question had to be written on the face of the Red Archer because the Strongest Steel laughed mockingly.
"So I won!"
He raised his arm, brandishing the Divine Sword of Salvation.
"Protect yourself if you want... in the meantime, I'll kill your friends!"
Shirou looked around and understood what the King of the End meant. Burned and panting, Goudou Kusanagi leaned against a pillar, struggling not to faint. The members of his harem were on the ground, unconscious. Even Lancelot remained on her knees, unable to lift her shield to protect herself. Only Guinevere was still able to fight.
"Divine Lightning of Salvation!"
Rama widened his eyes and lowered his mighty sword.
"How is it possible?"
The wave of fire emitted by Excalibur had gone out and the platinum beam of light had disappeared halfway. It was impossible! His attack had evaporated in thin air...
Shirou laughed as he saw the god so stunned. He spread his arms in a falsely casual posture.
"So your evil plan didn't work? No wonder the Bad Guys always lose in the end. It's proved by the Hollywood theorem!"
"How did you do that?"
"Oh, it's simple. This sword contains three miracles. I used one, O mighty King of the End."
At first skeptical, Rama shook his head before smiling almost magnanimously.
"Thank you for your kind explanation, Emiya Shirou. If I understand correctly, I just have to start again until you have exhausted all the miracles held by this Durandal sword and I would have won. Your honesty (or maybe I should call it naivety) deserves a reward... I promise you a quick death!"
Oops!
Again, the Heretic God raised Excalibur.
"Divine Lightning of Salvation!"
A few hundred yards away, Hakuno sighed, massaging her forehead. One might think that after having integrated EMIYA's experience and having trained for a year in Arcadia (for Shirou in any case it had lasted a year) the Faker would have completely lost that endearing naivety that characterized him... except that it reappeared and sometimes at the most inopportune moments.
It was hardly believable that Shirou managed to compete on an equal footing with the Strongest Steel, but we shouldn't fool ourselves... Winning was probably beyond his strength.
Hakuno looked at the diagrams floating beside the main screen. For her everything was clear. Shirou had Reinforced his body to its limits. Yet... he remained slower, weaker than the Strongest Steel. Moreover, of course, Rama was a virtually indestructible God of Steel while Shirou was made of flesh and blood.
The situation was easy to summarize. Shirou was exhausted from fighting, already gasping, his face covered with sweat. While the Heretic God did not know fatigue, he did not need to drink, eat, sleep... he did not even need to breathe. A prolonged fight would inevitably end with Rama standing as victor.
Hakuno shook her hands in a gesture of involuntary prayer as her face showed an expression of despair. Some Formal Wears could block the King of the End's attacks. It would offer a brief respite, but that's all. The Last Master tried to paralyze Rama using Code Casts and it didn't work. All the Heretic Gods had great resistance to magic. Rama was even more so. He was too strong to be affected by mere Code Casts.
Hakuno was thinking, and thinking again, trying desperately to find a new plan of action, but nothing came to her mind.
Suddenly a new translucent window appeared. Its appearance was different from the others. The virtual screen was surrounded by a yellow and brown hatched border. At its center, a logo representing an exclamation mark in a yellow triangle indicated that this was priority information.
There was only one line of information written in the window:
"Summon a Servant? (Y/N)"
A Servant?
The Moon Cell was the memory of the world. It was also an extraterrestrial supercomputer of incredible power. In a second, he could simulate millions of simultaneous fights and even calculate the odds of victory for each fighter. If he had selected a Hero from thousands of others, his chances of defeating Rama would have been higher.
Without hesitation, Hakuno pressed the button marked 'Y'.
Since he stopped the second use of the Divine Sword of Salvation, Shirou was fighting Rama at close range, believing he had a better chance of survival.
But...
His whole body was painful because of the tension induced by the Strengthening Magecraft.
Rama attacked. Several blades of swords appeared to spring at the end of the multiple arms of Strongest Steel... only one was real the others were illusions, optical aberrations caused by the speed of movement of his opponent.
Shirou contorted while blocking what he thought was the real attack.
But his movement seemed to take place in slow motion if one compared it to the vivacity of his opponent. Roland's sword intercepted Excalibur and, again, the clash of the two blades was like an explosion. The shock moved up his arms, painfully vibrating in his bones, violently pulling on his muscles and tendons. As Shirou staggered, trying to reposition his feet to regain stability, the King of the End leaped to strike again...
It was a hellish dance. Rama attacked to the right, then to the left, before jumping to the side to try to pierce him at hip height. The Raja of Ayodia's sword came back to him, whistling like a snake, cutting through the air... Shirou backed down... but not fast enough.
Excalibur drew a bloody line across his chest, splitting the Red Archer's armor as if it was made of paper.
The Heretic God was constantly attacking, forcing Shirou to the defensive. He had to take a brief break in the maelstrom of attacks to counter-attack. Durandal struck diagonally, aiming at Rama's shoulder. But Strongest Steel jumped off the coast and...
Shirou only had time to see the Divine Sword of Salvation leap towards his face.
For a brief moment, the universe was only red pain.
Catapulted back, Durandal violently pressed against his left arm by the violence of the blow, the Red Archer screamed.
He planted his sword in the ground to brake and finally stopped his flight at the end of a long trench dug into the ground. The Faker stood up, wavering and spitting blood.
His left arm was broken, along with several ribs... one of them must have pierced a lung. Fortunately... a golden light appeared in several places playing around his wounds... Avalon was already treating him.
The young Japanese looked around, searching for his enemy... A shiver shook him and he leapt back as his battle instinct howled to him.
Where he had stood, the ground exploded... smashed by Excalibur.
Shirou swallowed painfully... that was good to know, whether in melee or ranged combat... he was completely outclassed. Rama was unbelieving strong! His blow packed so much strength! As if the Heretic God weighed several tons! Even worse, the strongest Steel was a better swordsman than him, and like Saber, he seemed to have a fighting instinct that allowed him to anticipate every movement of his foe (1).
"Unknown to Death,"
In a flicker of bluish light, a dozen swords of the most diverse origins appeared to the right and left of Emiya, hovering mid-air. Some of these blades were sacred swords that had belonged to kings or paladins, others were cursed weapons with hideous appearance, some came from Europe, and others came from Asia or North Africa.
Shirou waved with his left hand and the swords sprang, like catapulted forward by an invisible mechanism. There Rama cursed, dodging and parrying the swords. Some weapons crashed into the ground, others bouncing against the walls. A few blades smashed their target, but the god flesh was much stronger than forged steel. The Heretic God was only scratched, the swords being unable to sink deep into his flesh. In addition, The King of the End regenerated very quickly, the wounds were already closing.
"Nor known to Life."
But already, Shirou was reciting another line of his aria and other swords appeared. This time, all the swords were replicas of Caliburn, one of the most powerful blades inside his Reality Marble. Rama was extremely fast and agile, dodging the salvo and blocking with Excalibur the few swords that Shirou had redirected before they stuck in the ground. This new barrage of swords was even more of a failure than the one before. After all, the Red Archer was using an inferior copy of Gilgamesh's technique against a god who had already defeated the King of Uruk...
"No sword is stronger than the hand holding it," mocked Rama. "Whether you can use one sword at a time or ten will not change anything."
"The consensus is that I am too stupid to understand when I face an opponent too strong for me and I continue to fight until I win... because I did not understand that I had to lose. I'm that kind of a jerk, King Rama."
The Heretic God raised his sword.
"Divine Lightning of Salvation!"
Shirou focused on Roland's black sword.
"Durandal!"
Once again a miracle took place and the attack disappeared...
But Rama was smiling.
"If I counted right, that's three miracles! You have no assets left, mortal."
The King of the End raised Excalibur and pointed the divine blade at Shirou.
"Divine Lightning of..."
"Air Slash!"
Abruptly interrupted, Rama turned sharply blocking three guillotines of wind rushing straight at him. The attacks broke, harmless, against the divine sword. The God of Steel turned to his aggressor with a scornful frown on his face...
"Lady Guinevere, it is very rude to intervene in a duel!"
The child-like Divine Ancestor answered with a scowl of anger.
"This Guinevere says that you remember the rules of chivalry only when it suits you, King of the End!"
"Perhaps... but I have just decided that I am weary of your insolence. I will kill you here and now, Lady Guenivere. I deserve some peace. Why do you always have to upset me?."
As Rama grabbed his sword, a pentacle appeared on the ground, as if traced by an invisible hand. Just finished, it began to radiate an orange light, and a humanoid form made of bluish prana emerged as if coming out of the ground. Simultaneously photonic crystal cubes and violet particles appeared around the pentacle and converged to fill the silhouette.
Of all those present, only Shirou understood what was going on.
This silhouette was a 'Servant container' created by the Moon Cell, and the supercomputer was filling this container with the memory of a Hero.
Finally, the figure of translucent prana became denser and materialized in a humanoid form similar to a being of flesh and blood.
The summoned Hero was a little woman with hair like powdered gold, gathered in a braid coiled on the back of the skull. A rebellious wick formed an ahoge resembling a question mark above her forehead. Her face was pale with perfect skin, and large eyes for now closed. She was dressed in a blue dress with gold straps, over a white petticoat weighed with golden acorns.
The woman... no, the teen girl... had gauntlets and steel boots while a pectoral decorated with plant drawings in blue lacquer protected her chest. An implausible skirt of articulated steel plates hung from her belt, descending on either side of her legs to the bottom of her dress.
Her hands were crossed on the knob of a magnificent two-handed sword whose handle was lacquered in blue. The gold hilt had the shape of a crescent moon and at the base of the sword was decorated with a gold cross inlaid in blue lacquer.
She opened her eyelids, revealing eyes like precious emeralds. The woman in armor looked calmly around her before speaking in a soft but strangely magnetic voice.
"Thou knight's name is Artoria Pendragon, daughter of Uther Pendragon, designated as king of Britain by the Sword of Selection. Thou knight responds to the call of her Master, Hakuno Kishinami, summoned as Saber-class Servant."
As one would look at his reflection in a distorting mirror, King Arthur, the King of Knights, looked at King Arthur, the King Who Rule at the End of Time.
"Saber," whispered Shirou in an emotional voice.
His emotions were a hurricane of confusion. He was both happy and felt guilty. The last time he saw Saber, well, Alter, he killed her. He had no choice. He had to kill her to stop Dark Sakura. But it was because of him that his Servant had been corrupted. This tragedy was his entire fault.
The King of Knights looked away from his Shadow to watch the Faker.
"We never met, Emiya Shirou."
"I... it's true... you come from an alternative universe. I... I forgot," he swallowed. "You look so much like the Saber I met."
She nodded.
"I understand."
The King of the End looked at Saber's invocation. When she showed up, he knew she was... King Arthur... a reflection of his own legend.
He winced in anger. The inferior being who dared to challenge him was not a goddess. Certainly, she was more than a mere mortal but remained pathetically weak compared to the Strongest Steel.
He laughed and then jumped forward.
"You have to be very stupid to talk in the middle of a fight."
The Divine Sword of Salvation split the air aiming at Saber.
"Wind King Slash!"
Rama's sword crossed a blurred afterimage. Already, the Servant reappeared to strike in turn. The God of Steel leaps back, avoiding Saber's counterattack that smashed the ground where he had stood a split second before.
Shirou watched the fight between the two King Arthur.
He felt like he was reliving Saber's arrival and her confrontation with Lancer. His admiration for her was still intact. How could she be so beautiful and so strong simultaneously, a sweet girl and the perfect incarnation of chivalry in the same fleshly envelope?
He shook his head. It wasn't the best time to immerse in reminiscences. He concentrated on the ongoing fight.
Even though he had Strengthened his eyes and reflexes to the max, he had trouble tracking the movements of the two fighters. Rama was incredibly fast and Shirou had a lot of difficulty parrying his attacks.
But Saber simultaneously used Invisible Air (to lower the atmospheric pressure around her, and therefore friction) and Mana Burst (to boost her strength and speed). So she could move as fast and hit as hard as Rama.
The little blonde woman sprang frequently, rarely remaining on the ground. Her dress swirled like the corolla of a flower. In her hand, her version of Excalibur radiated a golden light. She jumped over Rama and turned in flight to strike.
The Strongest Steel blocked the attack with the Divine Sword of Salvation. The version of Excalibur haloed with golden light and the version of Excalibur haloed with platinum light collided and...
The explosion blinded Shirou and the blast lifted him off the ground, violently throwing him against a column.
He straightened himself painfully, using Durandal as a cane.
The vast throne room was filled with dust and smoke. The Faker narrowed his eyes and finally discovered two silhouettes standing on either side of a newly dug crater.
Rama was standing, barely shaken by the shock. Saber, on the other hand, was kneeling, leaning on his sword, and blood dripped from his split brow.
Even the King of Knights wasn't strong enough to fight the King of the End!
Repressing a curse, Shirou let Durandal dissipate into blue prana particles.
And...
"Have withstood pain to create many weapons"
The Faker Traced a new version of Durandal... with its three miracles.
He was not a spectator, he was a participant!
Guinevere had painfully pulled Ena Sheishuuin to the front door. Goudou Kusanagi was right behind her carrying his other two "wives".
Wounded and barely conscious, the Campione released them as if they were just plaster bags before sitting on the floor, panting.
Hakuno's mental voice echoed in their minds.
[Yuri Mariya is on her way! ]
Without waiting for the healer to arrive, the Witch of Brittany ran to the nearest column. Lancelot du Lac was also sheltered behind an obstacle a few meters away. Both looked at the fight in progress...
The King Arthur who came from another universe attacked again, she danced like a will-of-the-wisps. Her sword struck here, then there... Suddenly, she disappeared... to reappear a little further. Dozens of blurred afterimages appeared simultaneously in various locations of the vast throne room. Prana explosions, shockwaves, and lightning were unleashed each time the two versions of Excalibur clashed.
Artoria Pendragon became motionless her eyes half closed. She lowered her sword, the point almost touching the ground. The wind began to blow and wrapped around Excalibur the blade shone with a blue light and became blurred before... disappearing.
"Strike Air!"
The next moment a hurricane was unleashed in the room... a kind of horizontal twister.
Of course, Rama was not taken by surprise. His Mind's Eye skill allowed him to predict his opponents' movements. He pointed his sword at Saber, using one of the Authorities of the Divine Sword of Salvation.
"Divine Lightning of Salvation!"
Fortunately, Shirou followed the fight carefully, waiting for the right moment to intervene. He raised his sword.
[Now, Shirou] said Hakuno, coordinating his attack so that it strike at the right time.
"Durandal!"
The platinum beam and the wave of fire disappeared simultaneously. The use of the miracle took the Strongest Steel by surprise. Shirou's naivety (which had revealed to his enemy that Durandal was blessed only by three miracles) had finally proved useful. The Heretic God had been misled because he was unaware that every sword the Faker Traced was somehow 'new'.
The hurricane crashed the god back.
Strike Air was only a C-Rank Noble Phantasm. Such a 'weak' attack could not hurt the Strongest Steel. Nevertheless, the shock distracted the Heretic Gof briefly, and... he spat a flood of blood. Lowering his eyes towards the origin of the pain, he discovered the young blonde woman who impaled him with her sword. Let your guard down, even very briefly, could prove fatal when fighting with a swordswoman as gifted as Artoria.
Furious he grabbed her wrist with one hand, immobilizing her, and with the other lifted the Divine Sword of Salvation, determined to slice Saber in two.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Artoria's voice rose from octave to octave, a long, deep shout accompanied by furious winds whirling around her. Saber's Excalibur shone brighter, brighter, and brighter. Rama also shouted... but in pain. The Noble Phantasm burned him from the inside.
"Excalibur!"
The dazzling golden beam of light, an A++ rank anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm, had just been used at point-blank range... or rather used INTO its target!
The beam of golden light violently ripped Rama apart, scorching him horribly, disintegrating the left half of his torso, and tearing off his arm. But it was not over. The ground exploded beneath the god's feet, as a whirlwind of golden light, a tornado-like stream of gold glow-worms, returned to the stars the power Saber had borrowed from them.
Shirou approached the huge crater in the center of the throne room... the room was ripped open. The roof had flown away and only a few walls remained standing.
Saber was at the crater's edge watching the Divine Sword of Salvation planted in the middle of the ruins. Around the blade swirled ashes.
"Is it over?"
The King of Knights shook her head painfully. She was breathless, bleeding, and her clothes were torn. Shirou knew he should not look better.
"So we won?"
But a voice very different from Saber's one answered. A mocking voice.
"Won? No, you lost! How many times do I have to tell you before you understand? I am the Strongest Steel! I am INVINCIBLE! (2)"
Shirou and Saber watched the ashes amalgamate to form a face... Rama's face. They had eyes enlarged by fear, even Artoria was terrified.
"Bravo! I congratulate you. Until then, no one could boast of having cremated me! Yes, I was hurt. Yes, you burned me to ashes. But I'm a god. An invulnerable god. The most powerful of all gods, armed with the most powerful sword. From the start, you never had a chance to defeat me. You are just prolonging your suffering with your pathetic actions. Congratulations, you make me angry! I now see you as true adversaries, and I will use the full extent of my true power against you."
A tendril of ash extended into the crater and retrieved a steel medallion. Rama's voice boomed like thunder.
"Sangreal, I command you to appear, for I am King Arthur, your rightful owner!"
In a swirl of golden light appeared a large gold chalice the size of an urn. Although undecorated, its proportions were perfect. It was filled with a white liquid light that was gently waving.
Some of this lactescent liquid came out of the basin and was absorbed by the being of ashes and... in an instant, the King of the End transformed back into his human form. Even his clothes were fully restored!
Picking up the Divine Sword of Salvation, he turned to Artoria and Shirou.
"Now it's time to finish this ridiculous fight. You will suffer for your arrogance... "
At that moment an infuriated voice cut him off
"This Guinevere is ashamed. This situation is her very sin! This Guinevere never should have given the steel medallion to Rama and recognized him as the real King Arthur." The Witch of Brittany turned to Saber to make an elegant curtsy. "This humble handmaid beseeches the real King Arthur for her forgiveness."
Though wounded and exhausted, Saber nodded nobly.
"I'm glad the Moon Cell sent me here because I swore to search for the Grail and make it mine at any cost!"
Another person advanced into the ruins. Lancelot du Lac had been treated by Yuri Mariya, however the Queen of Amazon was still exhausted. She knelt before Saber, presenting her spear placed on the tray formed by her hands.
"This humble Knight salutes the true King Arthur. I saw you fight. You are a great knight, noble and courageous, worthy of being the king that I, Lancelot du Lac, would follow to the end of the world! My spear is at your service, King Arthur"
Again, Saber replied with a chin movement.
"Sir Knight, I recognize in you a more reliable version of Lancelot du Lac than the one I knew..." she had a smile tinged with a hint of humor "... at least there's little chance you eloped with my wife."
Surprised by this sudden exchange of welcome addresses and compliments, Rama was stunned at first. But he decided to laugh.
"Well, I'm not the King Arthur you wanted? Well... too bad for you, the Sangreal has only one owner and it's me!"
Of course, he was right. The Sangreal was bound to his master by a magic pact. No one could change this fact...
...
—unless you're the witch Medea.
Shirou let Durandal evaporate and focused while continuing to talk with Hakuno.
[Got it? We only have one chance!]
[Yes] simply replied the Master of the Moon.
From the corner of his eye, Emiya saw Saber stiffen slightly as she heard her Master's instructions. Lancelot and Guinevere were also attentive to the mental voice of the group's strategist.
There was still a chance to win. A tiny chance to defeat Rama... a hypothetical chance, based entirely on the strict interpretation of a magic pact, exploiting a loophole in the contract.
"But yet, those hands will never hold anything"
In the hand of the Faker, a dagger appeared... The object did not resemble a weapon. The blade had the appearance of a lightning bolt and was too thin and fragile. The metal sparkled with a mote of a thousand mixed colors, like a strange object of art.
Yet it was a terrible weapon.
Its name?
Rule Breaker! The sword of negation and betrayal, which nullifies every kind of Magecraft in the world.
Hakuno had ordered Saber and Lancelot to attack again. The two women were exhausted and Artoria was injured... but Rama had to be occupied to give Shirou time to act
The Faker began to run. His target was not the Strongest Steel but the Sangreal. He struck the golden cup with Medea's dagger.
The Noble Phantasm did exactly what it was supposed to do. Once the dagger comes into connections with objects or persons bounded through contracts, they will all be returned to their original state "before they (the contracts) were made".
To Rama's utter amazement, the steel amulet was snatched from his neck and landed in the outstretched hand of Guinevere, the legitimate guardian of the Grail.
The latter immediately began to speak.
"I, Guinevere, Witch-Queen of Brittany, claim to have found the true King Arthur. This humble handmaiden recognizes Artoria Pendragon, daughter of Uther Pendragon, as the true owner of the Grail."
Jumping back, Saber grabbed the steel medallion that Guinevere had just thrown at her and... The Sangreal lit up. A puddle of liquid light came out of the cup and floated to the King of Knights. Briefly, she was surrounded by light, and all her wounds closed as her magical energy was restored.
When the Mother Goddess Gwenhwyfar created the Sangreal, she enchanted it to serve only the 'legitimate King Arthur', not 'Rama'... 'King Arthur'. She had simply not taken into account the multiple King Arthur existing in the Multiverse. These Savior kings were just as legitimate as Rama.
Of course, Guinevere, the guardian of the Grail and the reincarnation of the Mother Goddess was the only one who could decide who the 'True King Arthur' was. And the Witch-Queen had just recognized Saber.
As Rama moved back, shaken by this sudden turn of events, Shirou let Rule Breaker evaporate while reaching out. The last verse of his aria came out of his lips.
"So as I pray, Unlimited Blade Works."
The ground split under the feet of the Red Archer and an intense light emerged, the next moment the universe disappeared, replaced by...
A desert of sand that stretched to the horizon.
Each dune was planted with swords of all shapes and sizes. In the sky, where gigantic rusty cogs slowly turned, clouds of fire smoke passed by.
Without giving the King of Steel any time to recover, the smallest opportunity to counter-attack, Shirou struck. A spear runic carved into the red bone of a Phantasmal Specie by the Queen of Shadow leaps from a distant dune to land in his hand.
"Gae Bolg!"
A red ray came from Cù Chulainn's spear. Shrirou had carelessly pointed the weapon at Rama's feet. The latter, however, prudently jumped making distance... but it did not matter. The curse attached to the famous Red Spear made the weapon find the heart of its enemy even if he blocked or dodged the attack.
Time seemed to rewind, the scarlet ray 'receded' then the universe twisted as the course of time resumed its advance... and the scarlet ray pierced the heart of Strongest Steel shaking him violently before projecting the Heretic God away.
The god rolled down a dune toppling several swords in his fall.
For a few seconds, he stood still, and then...
The Strongest Steel spit blood and stood up, a hand on his heart, in a vain attempt to contain the streams of blood that came out of the wound.
"You'll have to do better to kill me!"
Shirou shook his head.
"I suspected that a being who can survive even burned to the ashes would not be killed by Cù Chulainn's spear... But... tell me King of the End, your wound is not healing."
Rama jolted and his eyes narrowed.
The Heretic God was very resilient, but part of his invulnerability came from his impressive ability to quickly regenerate his injuries. So why wasn't his wound closing?
Obligingly, the Faker gave him the answer to his question.
"It is a cursed spear that inflicts incurable wounds on humans. I'm sure you'll recover eventually if we leave you alone, King of the End. But, which is obviously not our intention."
Furious, but also frightened for the first time in his life, the Strongest Steel stood up despite the pain.
"I promise you will pay my humiliation a hundredfold."
"When the bad guy starts talking about his future revenge, it means that he will die within five minutes," replied Shirou with Archer's signature smirk.
He turned to look towards another dune.
"Oh, I see your order is ready."
Artoria was motionless with her eyes closed, Excalibur brandished above her head. The Sword of Promised Victory radiated gold, a flame formed by fireflies that joined the blade and merged with its golden light. Real streams of these fireflies came from all directions.
The True King Arthur stepped forward and opened her eyes.
"Excalibur!"
A flood of light poured from the Sacred Blade like a raging river toppling a dam.
Rama brandishes his version of Excalibur.
"Divine Lightning of Salvation!"
A flood of platinum was released by the blade, while the usual side effect (a wall of fire that unfolded in a circle around the King of the End) ravaged the nearby dunes.
The two beams of light collided in a prodigious shock that dazzled all those who watched the fight.
Rama began to smile.
Slowly at first and then more and more quickly, the golden beam was pushed back by the flow of platinum. The Sword of Divine Salvation defeated his rival's weapon. That was normal. The King of the End had the mightier of the two Excalibur...
As Artoria's face was covered with sweat and she clenched her teeth, trying to gather more energy, the Sangreal began to radiate and a little of the luminous liquid came out of the cup and floated towards Saber.
Immediately, the golden flow doubled in volume as in power!
At the sight of the flow of golden light repelling his attack, Rama began to scream.
"Nooooooooooooooo!"
Around him, the desert deepened as the King of the End increased his mass to the maximum to withstand the power of the Sword of the Promised Victory.
Staggering, barely conscious... Rama stood up, pulling himself out of the crater created by the attack. He was seriously injured and his wounds were not healing.
"Do you remember what you said earlier?"
The Heretic God turned to Shirou, standing on a nearby dune. The young Magus held his outstretched hand with the other hand. Through the tears of his ragged clothing, Rama saw that his Magic Circuits were activated. His skin was smoking and browning. On his face the brown spots joined, his hair whitened... once again he used his Magecraft at full power without worrying about the damage he inflicted on his body. Without Avalon he would already be dead, however, he continued to turn od into prana...
The Strongest Steel realized that his enemy was going to finish him off with a powerful attack. Yet he clenched his teeth and stood up. He was too proud to die on his knees, beg for mercy or surrender.
Despite his lamentable condition, the King of the End raised his sword, preparing for his last fight.
But the Faker paid no attention.
"You told me that no sword was stronger than the hand that held it. And that's why whether I used a sword or ten, it made no difference, King Who Rule at World's End."
A tremor spread throughout the landscape, and a shadow plunged the smoking crater into darkness.
Rama looked up and saw a 'cloud' of swords cover the landscape, blocking any light... thousands of swords, tens of thousands of swords ... and these swords were falling... right on him.
The Strongest Steel refused to squeal, he would remain dignified to the end.
On the contrary, Emiya Shirou screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Then take all my swords!"
Rama's last thought was that a million swords were too much... even for the Strongest Steel...
(1) Rama has two skills that explain his talent as a warrior.
Mind's Eye: With this skill his senses are increased to the maximum level allowing him to predict the movements of their opponents, track beings with divine speed, predict their attacks, and block them. It also allows him to detect hidden enemies or their approximate location, apparently is this ability that is used to locate Campione around the world.
Armed combatant expert: Rama is proficient with all the divine weapons he possesses, and he can handle them with a supreme level of skill, rendering him virtually unbeatable, even when facing large numbers of opponents.
(2) If you think I'm exaggerating Rama's resistance, I would remind you that he has an Authority called Invulnerability. Canonically, Rama's body is like a walking steel fortress. This invulnerable body can handle extreme physical conditions such as a vacuum of space or the flame generated by the Divine Sword of Salvation. Rama can also increase the durability of his body by increasing his weight. It doesn't matter how heavy he is. This Authority allows him to move like normal. Rama sometimes exploits this aspect of his Authority to grant him a pseudo-superhuman strength, causing his sword to kill normal humans and Campiones without magic defenses in one hit. There are only two ways to destroy the Strongest Steel, exhaust completely his magical energy *... since he uses this energy to regenerate or destroy him by an attack so powerful that 80% of his body would disintegrate. I say 'disintegrate' because even if Rama is cremated, as long as his ashes represent more than 20% of his body mass he can still regenerate. Yes, he is an unstoppable terrifying monster!
*I remind you that the Sangreal contains the energy of about fifty Mother Goddesses... I hope you have nothing planned for the next millennium.
Author's note: Have you ever heard of a military art tactic used by Chinese generals of antiquity which was called "The Gate of Hell"?
This tactic consists of depriving his enemy of all his assets before crushing him (a sure kill tactic). Its name can be explained because often the opponent ends up completely demoralized, praying for his own death, after having lost everything.
The last two chapters are a good example of how to use this tactic.
Let me now clarify some details of this story that may not be obvious to you.
1°) You will have noticed that Rama uses only one of the powers of the Divine Sword of Salvation. The reason is simple; the most powerful attack (Divine Sword Mandala) is the sum of the power of all the Authorities of his user... except that Godou sealed Rama's Authorities and therefore Divine Sword Mandala. Excalibur has yet another attack (White Star) but this attack is only useful to poison the Campiones and block their magical energy... Yes, Saber and Shirou faced Rama while he was WEAKENED. He could only use one attack and it was not even the most powerful one. It's scary, isn't it?
2°) Why is Lancelot badly burned when she manages to block Rama's attack? Don't forget the side effect of Divine Lightning of Salvation... a wave of fire spreading in all directions.
3°) The Moon Cell chooses Saber because (during the simulations) it predicted that Shirou would use Rule Breaker to break the pact bounding Rama to the Sangreal. It is obvious that as long as Rama draws on the power of the Grail, he would be invincible... and Fate's version of King Arthur could not only deprive Rama of this asset but also turn it against him. I specify that this twist of fate was written in the synopsis, well before the writing of the first chapter of this FanFiction, it is not an improvisation imagined during the completion of this chapter.
4°) From the beginning, the goal of this story was for Hakuno (through her Servant Saber) and Shirou to join forces to defeat the King who Rule at World's End... and for Shirou to become a Campione. The whole story (and the way it was told) was all about bringing Shirou and Saber (Fate's King Arthur) together to confront Rama (Campione's King Arthur). It was the original idea from which was written Moonchild.
For the conclusion of the first part, see you in the next episode.